“Database Automations” Bring Advanced Functionality to Databases and Views

Next level automations are here! Have you ever wished that your database had just a little bit more intuition? Do you wish that it could do more of the work for you? Well, now it can! The latest release from Notion is definitely worthy of your excitement. Take a look.

So what are they?

“Database automations” allow you to define triggers and actions on Notion databases. You can think about it like this:

If this changed, then do that

In some cases, we can decide what action to take if a property is changed to a specific value. What makes this an exciting update is that we now have the ability to automatically reset a checkbox once it’s been ticked. This means that true recurring tasks are finally possible (see the second bullet point below)!

Not only can database automations be configured for an entire database, but they can also be configured for a specific view, adding even more flexibility to your automation.

Some examples of ways you can use database automations

• If a task “Done” checkbox is ticked, automatically set the “Completed” date to today (or now).
• If a recurring task “Done” checkbox is ticked, automatically set the “Last Completed” date to today and reset the checkbox
• If a task is added to a sprint, automatically change the status from “Backlog” to “Pending”
• If a task status is changed to “Blocked”, automatically assign the task to a manager
• If a sprint status is changed to “Completed”, automatically generate a new status report from a template with today’s date in the title and attach to the sprint

Duplicate the Notion template below to see these working examples in action.

This barely scratches the surface for what is possible with database automations.

How to create an automation

1. Click the new lightning bolt icon next to the database and select “+ New automation”
2. Select if you want the automation to run for all views in the database or only for a specific view
3. Follow the intuitive prompts to add the trigger criteria and the action

Existing automations may be edited, paused, or deleted from the ellipsis menu next to the automation.

Note that database automations will be available for Plus, Business, and Enterprise plan users. Users on the Free plan will still be able to access existing database automations through templates. What this means is that you can use or delete automations from templates, but won’t be able to edit them or create new ones.

What will you use database automations for? 🤔